Our Digital Communities

So hopping around different digital communities, each organized around different themes, I marveled at how varied they are in nature.  I am not talking about content.  I am talking about how people interact, or more precisely, the levels of interaction.  And I mean at a deeper level than the information classification used by Osatuyi in his article Information sharing on social media sites.  For an example, the blogs.  He lists them as being both dynamic and static in terms of information activity.  Naturally, how dynamic a blog becomes depends on how much response from readers it generates.  If no one posts a comment, it is a static information source.  People may read it, but they are not contributing.  But when they do contribute is what I am finding interesting.

I have noticed another layer of information dynamism, which emerges in the comments.  Some sites are set up where all comments are directed to the article and are listed in chronological order.  These comment threads are individually static.  It get interesting, however, when the site is organized like a discussion forum, so that respondents can comment on specific posts.  This is where it becomes truly dynamic, for it allows the conversation to diverge widely from the path the original blog article set.  And there can be multiple discussions on different facets of the original topic emerging simultaneously.  I did notice that this can be a double-edged sword, where the discussion departs entirely from the topic and drive off those who are interested only in the original commentary.  It also allows for personal attacks and flame wars if sufficient thread moderation is not exercised, which can further derail the blog.  But to me, it seems the most successful blogs are those that are able navigate these treacherous waters.  They at least show a lot of activity.